A growing number of people are arguing that Americans who elect to forego the COVID-19 vaccine should be denied medical care to various degrees if they become sick. This week, upon returning from summer vacation, Jimmy Kimmel Live! host Jimmy Kimmel became perhaps the highest-profile endorser of this shocking proposal:
"It was not a fun Labor Day weekend COVID-wise," Kimmel said noting the increase in cases from this time last year.
"Dr. Fauci said if hospitals get any more overcrowded they're going to have to make some very tough choices about who gets an ICU bed," the host continued. "That choice doesn't seem so tough to me. ‘Vaccinated person having a heart attack? Yes, come right in, we'll take care of you. Unvaccinated guy who gobbled horse goo? Rest in peace, wheezy.'"
This is an astonishing and deeply alarming suggestion for a number of reasons: Kimmel seems to be suggesting, for instance, that unvaccinated individuals should be denied treatment—and allowed to die—for every ailment, not just COVID-19.
Perhaps more importantly, denying people medical care based on their own personal medical decisions carries with it a host of profoundly disturbing implications. Obese people, for instance, might be turned away from hospitals because they chose to eat so much food and make themselves overweight. Smokers with lung cancer might face a similar second-class medical status, as might individuals who suffered broken bones while engaging in risky behavior like skateboarding, say.
Where does it stop? As with so many other drastic and world-altering decisions and proposals in the COVID era, we don't know yet.
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